Ghosts of Men by Curtis Sternitzky

Author:Curtis Sternitzky [Sternitzky, Curtis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-03T22:00:00+00:00

24

Jasper Nova II was a quiet Core World colony that sat close to the Neutral Zone. It had little in the way of manufacturing or raw materials. As a result, the colony was slow to grow and developed little over the course of its history. It was of little strategic value as well as its position in space didn’t offer any easy jumps to nearby systems. A contingent of corvettes had been dispatched along with a small ground force to give the locals peace of mind, given everything that happened in the news recently.

Corporal Klein sat flicking a pen back and forth across his desk space without a care in the world. The atmosphere on this planet was quite relaxed and he was enjoying it. Warm, mid-afternoon sun filtered through the dusty windows of the watchtower. Next to him sat the Space Communications and Flight Director or SpacCom for short. Corporal Klein had been assigned staff guard duty for the SpacCom. It was an easy job. The civilians here liked the CWN presence, who would attack them?

A slight chime sounded from the SpacCom’s desk. He cocked his head and pulled one of the dozen or so radio communicators to his mouth.

“Razor-Five, you’ve got a Shift signature in your quadrant. Care to check it out for me?” The SpacCom’s voice carried an annoying tinge to it. Like someone who liked to point out that he was in charge whenever they could.

“Roger that SpacCom. I see it too. Adjusting course.” Razor-Five was one of the Long-Range fighters deployed with the Corvettes. They usually lacked armaments and were used as scouts more than for combat.

“We didn’t have any scheduled shifts for the next day or so, did we?” Corporal Klein asked, glad to have something going on for a change of pace.

“No, we don’t.” The SpacCom scowled and looked at a pile of papers next to his personal data pad. “Next scheduled arrival is 07:30 Local Planet Time tomorrow morning.”

“Maybe they got here early?” Corporal Klein suggested.

“Not likely. We would have gotten some kind of heads up from command.” The SpacCom keyed up a channel. “FleetNet, this is SpacCom, Do we have any changes or early arrivals expected today?” A few seconds passed before he got a response.

“That’s a negative on that, SpacCom. Schedule’s rock solid.” SpacCom shook his head at the response. Corporal Klein looked at one of the screens that showed orbital ship movement. The shift signal had appeared near one of the system’s outer rocky planets. If it had been an early arrival, they would have shifted much closer. Something was off.

A tense few minutes passed. Corporal Klein had ceased his pen flicking and was watching the SpacCom’s screens, brows raised with anxious anticipation. Razor-Five’s signal drew closer to the shift reading. If there was a ship in the region, the fighter’s scanners would find it, or at least pick up the sub-light engine readings.

“SpacCom, this is Razor-Five…I’ve got your readings. You’re not going to like this.” Corporal Klein watched as a data packet blinked in the corner of the SpacCom’s screen.

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